Chairs at the bar at Starbucks

David and I have been doing extensive “field work” picking our favorite coffee shops around town! It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it. Pray for me in this endeavor.

I’m totally kidding…we’re having a blast making friends all over town, to tell you the truth. As I’ve mentioned before, the bars are really the friendliest spots where people are most open to conversation. But it doesn’t set quite the example I want to set for my kids to be hanging out in bars, so we’ve been looking for the friendliest coffee shops instead. South Florida has a strange sense of community. Actually, they have very little sense of community. That lack of “place” is probably our biggest frustration. There are literally no hometown choices within a 20 minute radius, so Starbucks it is. So this is how we’ve tried to establish ourselves in the community during this intense season of caffeination.

  1.  We know nearly all the barista’s names in our three top spots. We are trying to consciously limit ourselves to the top three, too. There are only so many relationships you can nurture!
  2. We make sure we are in the coffee shop at least two to three times a week.
  3. We stay put in the shop for at least an hour, preferably more. During that time we make sure we get up and down a few times.
  4. Talk! I’ve had some really interesting conversations lately, with people who are very diverse. The new perspective this has given me is invaluable.
  5. Bring an interesting book. I’ve said it before, your book is the best conversation starter there is! A follow-up to that should be obvious: be sensitive in what book you choose to read!
  6. Be a friend. You are a “guest” in this coffee shop, or any other place you find yourself in the community. This is not the time to preach, beg or exhort. I really don’t think there’s ever a time to do those things. Just learn to be part of the community and open your heart and mind to new relationships. Sitting at my coffee shop in Lexington, Massachusetts one rainy day I got to learn all about the world of cut throat scrabble competitions in Lexington. Use this time to learn and listen.

I don’t know if any of this is helpful to you or not. I just thought I’d tell you what we are trying to do around here to build community. It’s all part of a journey, and I’d love to hear from you on your journeys, too. Your community is probably different from mine. You might actually have a community! The title of Howard Schult’z book kind of says it all: “It’s not about the coffee.”